KRUG LAB - EVOLUTIONARY AND LARVAL ECOLOGY OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES
Public lectures and videos
1. I gave a public lecture on August 30th 2016 at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, and also recorded a short podcast as part of their “aquacast” series: Watch lecture Watch podcast
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2. I gave an hour-long lecture to the general public on Oct 7th, 2016 at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium for the AltaSea lecture series, about my research on sea slug biodiversity and evolutionary ecology. This was for an audience of all ages! Watch lecture
3. Lecture for adults (warning: it's R-rated) at the MindShare L.A. Science Series in 2012, on the sex life of sea slugs, biology of photosynthetic animals, and the potential for discovering new biomedical treatments from marine life. This series brings scientists and engineers to give talks that will generate synergy with the local artistic and business communities, and engender enthusiasm for breakthroughs from the general public interested in new technologies and insights into nature. Watch video
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4. I was honored in 2017 with my university's Outstanding Professor Award, and colleague Alan Bloom produced this mini-documentary about my lifelong obsession with sea slugs and my experience as an educator in the CSU system. Watch video
5. I gave a lecture on the sex life of sea slugs on May 30, 2008 at the Machine Project, an art gallery that invites scientists to give talks that will generate creative synergy with the local artistic community; if anyone can find the talk online, let me know. After the talk, the band Fol Chen played an original song about God scolding sea slugs for self-fertilizing but then realizing it was His fault for making them hermaphrodites. Attendee Ms. Kelli Ann Noftle later wrote a book of poetry, “I Was There For Your Somniloquy,” that won the 2010 Omnidawn award, inspired by the shocking reproductive antics of sea slugs (and the humans who sometimes emulate them).
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6. Our research was featured in two podcasts featured in the “Thank you ocean” campaign, run by the State of California’s Ocean Protection Council, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Here, I explain the potential for discovering drugs from slugs - that is, how the chemicals that shell-less sea slugs use to defend themselves against fish and other predators may have medically useful properties, for instance as anticancer drugs. Listen to a podcast
Artists hang huge inflatable cloth sea slugs over
head before my talk at the Machine Project
1. Interview for a locally produced public television segment for KCET on ocean acidification, and the resulting stress on ocean-dwelling organisms: SoCal Connected – Our Changing Oceans (1/9/2013).
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2. Interview with KCET evening news program that explored in more detail how ocean acidification has impacted oyster mariculture along the California coast: Rising CO2 Levels Posing Threat to Oysters (1/14/2015).
3. I appeared in four episodes of a six-part series airing on the History Channel called Cryptid: The Swamp Beast, premiering on February 24, 2014. I pop in to discuss important issues like new species discovery, how habitat loss affects animal conservation, and whether there is any scientific evidence for 'the Skunk Ape' (spoiler alert: there isn't). The focal point of the series was to discover whether a sasquatch-like monster (Swampsquatch?) was attacking people in the Bayou, or maybe a bear, or a serial killer, or just them Jagneaux boys up to no good again; I forget which it was, but we learned a lot along the way!
4. I was interviewed for the special “Eaten Alive” produced by the Discovery Channel, watched by over 4 million viewers. This two-hour special on anacondas and the threatened biodiversity of the Amazon aired December 7th, 2014. My knowledge of snakes stems from having a pet boa constrictor for 29 years, but I did a lot of research on anacondas and Amazonian biodiversity for this series. In the end the whole internet was outraged - half because the host traumatized an anaconda by trying to get it to swallow him (while wearing a special suit so he wouldn't die), and the other half because he didn't succeed. Watch show
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Radio segments
Madeleine Brand show (KPCC, 89.3) audio archives @ http://www.scpr.org/programs/madeleine-brand/
1. 9/28/10 – new species descriptions and taxonomy
2. 10/6/10 – Census of Marine Life decadal report
3. 10/15/10 – whale migration and ocean fertilization
4. 11/8/10 – parthenogenesis and virgin birth in snakes
5. 11/30/2010 – new index of ecosystem health for managing fisheries
6. 12/21/10 – top three biology news stories of 2010
7. 1/10/11 – tour of local tide pools
8. 2/2/11 – mass extinctions and climate change
9. 5/3/11 – biodiversity survey of Lord Howe Island, Australia
10. 5/31/11 – wayward grey whale in the Atlantic
11. 6/22/11 – deepest living animal found
12. 8/5/11 – tracking Pacific marine predators
13. 8/19/11 – invasive weeds
14. 9/12/11 – using mosquito parasite to fight Dengue fever
15. 9/20/11 – recovery of North Atlantic cod
16. 10/24/11 – lionfish invasion
17. 11/9/11 – molluscan phylogenomics
18. 1/26/12 – hybrid sharks
19. 3/13/12 – marine spatial planning
20. 5/29/12 – top 10 new species
21. 7/17/2012 – endangered abalone
22. 8/14/2012 – invasive species & tsunami debris
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23. 9/18/2012 – why females benefit from multiple mates
24. 9/21/2012 – bird “funerals” and how animals assess risk
Take Two show (KCRW, 89.9) http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/
25. 11/6/2012 – 1st sighting of the world’s rarest whale species
26. 12/4/2012 – immortal jellyfish, NY Times story
27. 3/20/2013 – salps
28. 3/26/2013 – smaller fish from ocean warming
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29. 10/24/2018 – California's kelp being devoured by 'purps'
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30. 10/31/2018 – New species of Halloween-colored sea slugs
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31. 09/4/2019 – California's threatened abalone
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32. 12/16/2019 – the Great 'Penis Fish' Catastrophe of 2019 (fat innkeeper worms galore!)
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33. 3/11/2021 – self-decapitating sea slugs & complete body regeneration
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34. 4/7/2021 – ‘the blob’, sea star wasting & purp recruitment spell collapse of bull kelp forests
35. 10/14/2021 – oil spills and rigs as reefs
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36. 6/27/2023 – harmful algal blooms and marine mammal strandings
Print interviews
1. Science Daily, 6/18/2019 - new species of egg-sucking slug named for Jim Hensen
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2. National Geographic, 7/23/2018 - disappearing sea slugs slow scientific study
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3. Martha’s Vineyard Times, 9/5/2018 - solar-powered sea slugs inspire
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4. National Geographic, 10/16/2018 - algae-mimicking sea slugs
5. New York Times.com, 11/1/2017 – nudibranch planktovory
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6. LA Times.com, 8/15/2012 – invasive species & tsunami debris